Analyzing the New Six Samurai

So, with the Legendary Six Samurai officially able to wreak havoc, you should be prepared to face them.

Although all of the Gateway shenanigans are broken in themselves, it's more difficult to play through a Shi En than it is to play through a Gateway. Statistically, your opponent will be able to summon Shi En on the first turn more often than they would draw Gateway in their opening hand.

Assuming that your opponent plays the full three Kagemusha, three Kageki, three Smoke Signal, and one Reinforcement of the Army and is also playing a 40-card deck with three Upstart Goblins, they have about a 50% chance of being able to summon Shi En on their first turn. That's quite often.

So, what would you Side Deck against such a threat? If you play Frog Monarchs and/or have a decent amount of Tuners in your deck, then you should consider Puppet Plant.

A Puppet Plant play would generally involve taking your opponent's Shi En, summoning a Tuner under its protection, and Synchro Summoning something with it. However, this play has some flaws. Solemn Warning/Judgment can still get rid of your Tuner before the Synchro, leaving you to hand back the Shi En at the end of the turn. There's also Rivalry of Warlords, which Six Samurai decks may side against you. If they Chain it to Puppet Plant's effect, you can't summon your Tuner unless it's a Warrior. So, X-Sabers, you're fine, but everything else would be stopped. These two facts may be the reason why Puppet Plant isn't seeing as much play as one would expect in the OCG.

Note that Frog Monarchs don't care about these two counters. So your Monarch got Solemn'd, who cares? Shi En is still gone. They flipped Rivalry? Tribute Set.

Anyway, these preventative plays will happen more often that you would expect. A Six Samurai player has up to a 74% chance of drawing a Solemn (Judgment/Warning) or Rivalry in their starting hand. This could be why Kinetic Soldier is more popular in the OCG.

Kinetic Soldier is hard to get through for Six Samurai. If you Set it, they can't stop it with Solemn, and it's not going to be stymied by Rivalry. The only real way a Six Samurai player can get rid of it is with Hand of the Six Samurai or Legendary Six Samurai - Mizuho. I'm sure that the Solemn was too late to hit Shi En will be able to take out Hand or Mizuho when it's summoned. And if your opponent had Seven Tools, Magatama, or Giant Trunade ready to stop you, you were probably going to lose anyway...

Two other cards to consider are Warrior Elimination and Gozen Match. Warrior Elimination is pretty situational, since they have both Shi En and Magatama to stop it. Gozen Match is only good if you open with it to prevent the swarm from even taking place. That being said, it's the same deal as using Solemn Warning against them. Both Gozen Match and Solemn won't help when the Shi En is already on the field. That's why these picks aren't as popular as Puppet Plant or Kinetic Soldier.

It's important to notice that I've ignored Gateway of the Six for most of this post. The reason is that Six Samurai don't need it to win (anymore). Sure, if they're successful in pulling off a Gateway combo, you're probably going to lose. But, that doesn't mean that you should side heavily for it. If you draw your Fairy Winds and Spell Shattering Arrows, but they don't draw their Gateways, you're in an even worse position. Same as if you side in Reign-Beaux against Gravekeeper's, but they don't draw Royal Tribute. It's better to prepare for the more prevalent threat in Shi En. Besides, your Mystical Space Typhoons and Dust Tornadoes are enough to deal with Gateway and such.